Graeme Hamilton: Former mayor failed to uncover corruption in Montreal because he was asleep at the switch

Gérald Tremblay was asleep at the switch when he was Montreal's mayor

Montreal’s former mayor, Gérald Tremblay, concluded his two days of testimony before the Charbonneau commission Monday with an impassioned statement that he has done nothing wrong.

“I maintain that no mayor could have brought to light and ended collusion as the [anti-corruption police] and the commission have succeeded in doing,” Mr. Tremblay said when invited to make closing remarks.

He said he “was never willfully blind,” but neither was he a police officer with the power to root out wrongdoing. “I am as shocked as you are by the revelations before this commission,” he told the provincial inquiry into corruption.

But as he left the stand, it was not what Mr. Tremblay did while he was mayor that stood out; it was what he failed to do. If he was not willfully blind, he was frequently asleep at the switch.

On Monday he was asked about a 2004 report that had identified a “closed market” in Montreal’s construction industry and a resulting city committee charged with finding savings for the city. At the time it was estimated that inflated contracts were costing Montreal between $40-million and $50-million a year.

Mr. Tremblay said he learned of the situation at a February, 2005, meeting of the city’s powerful executive committee, but he entrusted follow-up on the issue to his right-hand-man, Frank Zampino, the committee chairman. (Mr. Zampino is currently awaiting trial on charges of fraud and breach of trust in relation to the sale of city land.)

Mr. Tremblay explained that back in 2005 he had more important things to worry about than over-priced contracts. The city was in danger of losing the FINA world aquatic championships as a result of funding problems, and he had volunteered to try to save the event planned for that July.

“I convinced the managers of FINA to give us back the aquatic games. I became co-president of the organizing committee . . . and I had to find funding so these games could take place. That was my first preoccupation at that moment,” he said.

So what I understand is that because you had this preoccupation with FINA, you stopped looking after that report?

Justice France Charbonneau, the Superior Court judge heading the inquiry, seemed surprised that he was more concerned about diving and swimming than saving the city tens of millions of dollars. “So what I understand is that because you had this preoccupation with FINA, you stopped looking after that report?” she asked.

“I was less present at City Hall,” Mr. Tremblay said. “I had the mandate of saving the FINA [event].” He said he never sought a copy of the report until 2012.

He also said he did not see a second report produced in 2006 by the city’s internal auditor, which pointed to the possibility of collusion and listed the companies under suspicion, until years later. He said the city manager at the time never showed him the report and he was at a loss to explain why, as mayor, he was kept out of the loop on such important matters.

“Mr. Tremblay, you were not in an ivory tower. You must have been hearing things left and right?” Ms. Charbonneau said at one point.

Mr. Tremblay, who was first elected in 2001 and resigned amid controversy last year, acknowledged that it was common knowledge that city employees and elected officials were being treated to hockey tickets by companies doing business with the city.

But aside from a seat at a Celine Dion concert offered by a provincial cabinet minister and an event before a Montreal Expos game, he said he did not accept any free tickets. He said he does not play golf and rarely goes to restaurants, so he was immune to such temptations.

Ms. Charbonneau identified a “dichotomy” between the standards he imposed on himself and his indifference to the behaviour of others. “At the same time you have confidence in everyone around you, and you did not verify what was going on with the contracts, to see to what extent it was often the same players [who were winning them],” she said. Another time when Mr. Tremblay said he “could have” informed a new city manager about rumours of bribes at city hall, Ms. Charbonneau corrected him: “You should have,” she said.

Mr. Tremblay had been impatient to appear before the commission since a former organizer for his party, Martin Dumont, testified last fall that the mayor was aware of shady election spending. Elements of Mr. Dumont’s testimony have since been called into question, and on Monday Mr. Tremblay categorically denied that he had been informed of off-the-books election expenses.

As he concluded, Mr. Tremblay decided it was time to pitch his legacy. “I leave the city in better shape than it was when I arrived,” he said. But if he hoped a turn before the commission would repair his damaged reputation, he was out of luck. If Montreal is in better shape today, it is only because the rot that was allowed to spread under his watch is being exposed by the commission.
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